Speech will seek to win over conservatives, patriots, social liberals

Political notebook: Delegates expect Liberal leader to begin to set a policy frame

Here’s what I expect from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s keynote speech to the Liberal convention this afternoon: Not many surprises. He’ll reiterate some of the larger themes he has spoken about for months – in more detail, and perhaps with more partisan bite than previously.

The Liberal party is clearly feeling some pressure to address the charge, constantly being levelled by the Conservatives and New Democrats, that Trudeau is light on policy. With this in mind, he gave an economic speech in Calgary last fall, focusing on the oil patch, energy and the Keystone XL pipeline. The speech drew scant attention from the national media, as the overwhelming focus at that time was on the Senate scandal boiling away in Ottawa.

Today, I expect the Liberal leader will re-tread some of that same ground, castigating Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his failure to secure U.S. approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, in an effort to court soft conservatives. The Keystone pitch is a straight play for the old Red Tory vote. He’ll hammer Quebec’s values charter, as he has been doing since last summer. And he’ll reiterate his appeal to social moderates. In effect, i expect Trudeau will sketch (more clearly than he has until now) a two-pronged strategy for winning power, which I’ve in the past described as a fork, like in chess – cutting left on social issues, and right on economic issues, simultaneously.

I am a national political columnist for Postmedia News. My work appears in the National Post, on Canada.com, the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Halifax Chronicle-Herald... read more and Vancouver Sun, among other publications. I write primarily about national politics and policy.View author's profile